Rasmussen Reports finds that 45% of voters surveyed believe people chosen at random from the phone book would do a better job than current members of the US Congress.

A commenter on Don Surber’s blog agrees – as long as the names are chosen from the yellow pages ‘At least they can run a business.’

Some business experience is certainly desirable. Someone who has run a successful business knows about cost control, profits, how people are employed and why, where taxes come from, etc, etc. Their ideas about the economy are based on experience, and they have views about economic management which have been shown to work – otherwise they would be out of business.

According to a report published on Forbes.com, the current US administration has the lowest ever percentage of high level appointees with business experience:

Private Sector Experience by Administration

Given the economic power the US government wields, and the infuence the US economy has on world financial systems, this is worrying.

It would be interesting to see a similar graph showing business experience in Australian Federal cabinets over the last century.

And it would be interesting to see how many Australians think people picked at random from the yellow pages would do a better job than the Rudd government.